The story will always begin something like this: I was sitting in a chair by myself, no one squeezed between my hip and the armrest or perched over my head. My phone was in my hand because no one had taken it to watch adults talk in children’s voices while they review toys on YouTube […]

When my preemies were in the NICU there were days we could barely touch them. Their daily condition dictated how much holding we could do, how often I could sneak a hand inside their incubators and whether they were up for a sponge bath or an increase in tube feedings. Parker was my tiniest, yet healthiest. […]

You know that phrase about not seeing the forest for the trees? I’m not sure I see the forest or the trees. I’ll be walking along, with kids because when am I not with kids, and saying “Do you have your shoes? Is your shirt on backwards? Did I leave my keys in the car?” and […]

You were born and I was a mother. I didn’t fully understand that I had been a mom since the moment I saw two pink lines, that I was being handed 6 pounds 14 ounces of the most fierce kind of love. I didn’t know breathing you in would soften the blow of 2 am feedings and […]

Dear Young Mom, I’m writing you because my oldest daughter will be 20 next week. This fact probably has you dropping me into the “as old as your parents” black hole but I’m you, just a decade or two away from where you are now. There is so much I have learned that I want to tell […]

I’ve been reading like crazy this year, thus my rare appearances on the blog. I set a crazy goal on Goodreads for 2015 and I hate losing even in a race against myself so I’m going to read 50 books even if my whole summer is spent under the glow of my Kindle. That actually sounds like […]

I took Sawyer for his Last Ice Cream of the Fives and while his feet dangled under our chairs at just the right height to repeatedly scrape my shins he asked the deep questions of an almost six year-old. When did you know I was in your belly? What was it like when I was in […]

I didn’t realize why Sawyer volunteered to go to the grocery store with me until we got to the check out. I was speed-unloading the cart when I looked up to see him building a tower of produce, soup cans and ice cream (in that order because tomatoes make the sturdiest tower base, I’ve heard). […]

Most mornings Parker wakes up at the sound of my laptop opening. He flops into the living room bleary eyed and I close my laptop before it gets a chance to buzz alive. I tug him close as he changes the channel from Good Morning America to the one full of superhero names I can’t remember. After he […]

This week is Infertility Awareness Week. Did you know? I didn’t until I saw it on Facebook. But years ago I would have known. I would have been the poster woman for infertility treatments. Stomach like a pin-cusion, bruised arms from bloodwork, waving my sign for better insurance coverage and more research. And then our treatments finally […]

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About Me

I'm Jessica, 30-something mom to five, four in my arms and one in my heart.

On any given day you will find me taxi-ing a teenager, mopping up our latest "art project" and trying to remember when I turned the crock pot on… all the while, looking for the closest Starbucks drive thru. more